West Virginia Executive is Older Than …
ARIANNA WHITEHAIR
A silver jubilee , a quarter of a century , halfway to 50 … whatever you prefer to call it , 25 years is a long time for a magazine to be in existence . It ’ s just enough time for new technologies to be introduced that will forever change the dynamic of the printing process , for new story ideas to be pitched that will capture a new generation of readers and for new West Virginia Executive ( WVE ) writers to be born ( hint : the person writing this very article ). With that said , here are 25 things that our — still young , but certainly wiser — magazine is older than :
1 . Me : Yes , WVE is a couple of years older than its current editorial and production manager . Born in December 1999 — I was born just nine days before the new century , so I ’ m basically a 2000s baby — WVE was already in its terrible-twos phase of life when I came into existence .
2 . USB Flash Drives : Forgot all about these ? We ’ ll forgive you . WVE is older than digital flash memory itself . The data storing device that plugs into your computer wasn ’ t invented until 2000 .
3 . BlackBerry Phones : Before the infamous iPhone or Android debate , we had BlackBerries . Launching in January 1999 , this smartphone was discontinued in 2022 .
4 . iPhones : An ultra-popular device that you can find in the hands of just about everyone these days , the iPhone made its debut in 2007 . And while I am most certainly guilty of spending too much time on my own iPhone , I hope you ’ ll put yours down every once in a while and pick up a copy of WVE instead .
5 . Blu-ray Discs : Do these still exist ? More simply known as “ Blu-ray ,” these third-generation compact discs didn ’ t come around until 2005 .
6 . YouTube : This famous video sharing platform took the world by storm in February 2005 . From what I ’ ve heard , this is also the year kids stopped playing outside .
7 . Facebook : As timeless as this social media platform feels , what we know today as Facebook did not come into existence until 2004 . How did we ever survive without knowing what strangers were eating for breakfast every morning before then ?
8 . E-readers : Remember the good old days when people would go to the library and pick up a physical copy of a book or magazine ? Me neither . Since the introduction of e-readers like the Kindle in the early 2000s , reading has never been the same .
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE